Communication is shifting from traditional platforms—such as phone and paper—to digital media. Among the notable digital media are email, blogs, and social media networks. Social media networks are operated by companies including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google Plus, YouTube, Flickr, Picasa, Foursquare, Nextdoor, Pinterest, Yelp, 500px, Photobucket, Panaromio, Meetup, Eventbrite, Dailymotion, Viddy, Soundcloud, YikYak, Snapchat, Whisper, Secret, TripAdvisor, Expedia, Travelocity, etc. Social media data generally contain public descriptions of the views or activities of social media users. Therefore, analysis of social media data can uncover sentiment or behavior patterns and other useful information regarding social media users.
Businesses depend on their customers, and greater knowledge about their clientele helps businesses address consumer needs more thoroughly. Therefore, information regarding current and prospective customers that can be derived from social media data can be helpful to businesses. Today, business entities large and small often employ business intelligence tools to analyze business data, including customer-related data obtained from traditional data sources, such as customer profiles, satisfaction surveys, etc. The business intelligence tools include business intelligence dashboards, enterprise resource planning systems, and customer relationship managers. Businesses can benefit from strengthened business intelligence processes that can be achieved by integrating location-based social media data with other business data and performing broader and more comprehensive customer-oriented analysis.